Eight people face charges over broken King Tut mask
Source: CNN
By Faith Karimi
Eight museum employees will be charged with negligence after a botched reattachment of the beard on King Tutankhamun's mask, Egyptian authorities said.
King Tut's burial mask is displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and is considered a valuable artifact from ancient history.
There have been differing accounts of how the mask's blue-and-gold braided beard broke off since its damage came to light in 2014.
At the time, a museum conservator said the beard detached when the mask accidentally fell during cleaning. It was quickly reattached with a strong adhesive, but the glue left a gap between the face and the beard, the conservator said.
FULL story and video at link.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/24/africa/king-tut-broken-mask-charges/index.html
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)It seems it would be a stretch to charge the heads. If it was their authority to do restorations, then a botched restoration is a criminal act. The actual restorers though? Were they not just following orders?
Prosecutors said the eight people who will be charged are six restorers and two former heads of the restoration section at the museum.
They are accused of negligence and violation of the professional rules of the workplace, the statement said.
woodsprite
(11,940 posts)To take many ethics classes as part of their training and are drilled on it constantly. I don't think any art conservator could legitimately use the defense that they were just doing what their boss told them to do. Part of the damage also came from them using the wrong adhesive in the repair.
William Seger
(10,788 posts)... anyone whose work is that SLOPPY is definitely in the wrong line of work. I don't know about criminal charges, but they certainly should have been fired, in hopes that they would find more suitable employment.
Response to Omaha Steve (Original post)
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JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,375 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,490 posts)carried through a crowd of tourists and set on top of another case while there in the fall of 2012. I could have touched it as it went past me. Amazing it hasn't been more damaged.
glinda
(14,807 posts)drlindaphd
(86 posts)This is a 3000 year old artifact that is an essential treasure of our civilization. The fact that it was in a situation where it was vulnerable to breakage is a serious breach of the duty of the curators of the museum. The fact that it was mishandled and broken is also a serious breach. And on top of that it was not repaired by professional restorers.
Just think of how people would feel if an artifact that was special to you had been so abused. I would imagine that Christians would be outraged should the Shroud of Turin were to be ripped and then clumsily sew together.
This mask is a valuable artifact of our civilization and heritage and the curators of the Museum in Egypt do not deserve the privilege of caring for relics like this one. There are other museums around the world, The British Museum, The Museum of The University of Pennsylvania, and others who have curators who know how to care for ancient artifacts properly. These professionals will preserve and protect these artifacts and insure they are not kept in a situation where they can be damaged.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)> This mask is a valuable artifact of our civilization and heritage and the curators
> of the Museum in Egypt do not deserve the privilege of caring for relics like this one.
> There are other museums around the world, The British Museum, The Museum
> of The University of Pennsylvania, and others who have curators who know how to
> care for ancient artifacts properly. These professionals will preserve and protect
> these artifacts and insure they are not kept in a situation where they can be damaged.
"Elgin Marbles"